Pure Chance
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: What if Lily and James did not die in that fateful Halloween night? Completely AU. Warning: Snape is not as nice as in my usual stories.
1. Chapter 1

**Pure Chance**  
><strong>by Healer Pomfrey<strong>

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.  
>I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.<em>

* * *

><p>Lily Potter woke up, smiling happily. <em>'Today is Christmas Day, and we're still alive,'<em> she thought, feeling over the moon with joy.

In fact, Lily was a Seer, and ever since she had set foot at Hogwarts a little more than ten years ago, she had had the same dream over and over again. In her dream - that actually seemed more like a vision than a dream - she and James had both died at the hand of Voldemort, and Harry had been sent to live with her atrocious sister Petunia.

However, when that fateful Halloween day finally arrived, everything happened slightly differently than expected.

**_Flashback Halloween, 1981_**

It was already dark, and Lily knew that Voldemort was going to attack them during the next few hours, when the fireplace flared and her best friend, Alice, stepped through together with her baby Neville.

"Lily, I'm sorry to disturb you on Halloween, but Neville is running a high fever, and I've no idea why," Alice blurted out, seemingly worried.

Lily was a healer, and, before Harry had been born just a day after Neville, she had been working at St. Mungo's, the wizarding hospital.

"Hi Neville, what's wrong tonight?" Lily cooed, while she gently caressed her godchild's flushed cheeks, knowing that the boy had been fully all right when he had played together with Harry on the previous day.

However, the baby merely let out a small whimper, and Lily quickly pulled her wand casting a diagnostic spell, before she pointed it at Neville's head to take his temperature. "He caught the wizard's flu," she informed her friend and called her house-elf Conny, asking her for the respective baby potions for Neville. _'Thank Merlin I just brewed a new batch a few days ago,'_ she thought, as she spelled both liquids, the flu potion as well as a fever reducer, straight into the boy's system.

"Now is that better, Neville?" she cooed, causing the boy to smile broadly.

"Fanku," Neville replied, making his mother cast him a proud look. He toddled over to where Harry was sitting on the floor looking at a children's book.

"Hi Neville," Harry said and pulled his best friend down on the floor to sit next to him, glad that Neville seemed to be all right and could play with him.

Thirty minutes later, all of a sudden, the entrance door was blasted open, and with a few loud steps, Voldemort strode into the room, pointing his wand at the children.

"No," Lily shouted, horrified. "Leave the children in peace. Take me instead."

"Out of the way," Voldemort growled, and the green light of the most unforgivable curse travelled from his wand in the direction of the children.

However, the light stopped right in front of the children, before it was flung back in a high speed, hitting the evil wizard square in the chest. As a result, Voldemort vanished into thin air, while both children collapsed, unconscious.

"Don't worry, they'll be all right," Lily reassured her friend after hurriedly casting a couple of diagnostic spells. "I don't know what to think about their head wounds though. They seem to be magical wounds."

_End of flashback_

Both children had recovered after a good night's sleep. However, unfortunately, the depletion of their magic just at a time when Neville had been ill with the wizard's flu and Harry had just been coming down with it as well, had greatly damaged their immune system. During the seven weeks that had passed since the event, both children had caught various illnesses and been sick at least once a week.

_'But I'm alive and can help them,'_ Lily thought, happily. _'There's nothing worse than to not be here for my own baby.'_

HP

"James," she whispered, causing her husband to lazily open his eyes.

"What is it, Lilyflower? Is it late?"

"No," Lily replied, chuckling, "it's only six o'clock in the morning, but I'm so happy to be alive."

"Me too," James replied and pulled his wife close, whispering, "Let's have some fun before Harry wakes up."

HP

An hour later, Lily drifted back to sleep, only to be pulled into a new vision. However, it was a positive vision, which caused her to wake up and remain engrossed in her happy thoughts for a moment, before she realised that Harry was beside her bed feverishly trying to climb up.

Smiling, Lily pulled Harry up and cuddled him close, thinking, _'Next year, there'll be four of us.'_

"Today is Christmas Day," she told Harry, who sat up, wide-eyed.

"Chismis pwesi?" he asked in obvious excitement, causing Lily to smile, amused.

"All right, little one, let's go and see if Father Christmas brought you a present," she replied, before she woke up James, and the three Potters headed downstairs towards the living room.

An instant later, Harry stood in front of the Christmas tree, staring at the beautiful tree in apparent amazement.

"Lub de tee," he shouted, cheerily reaching out for one of the colourful baubles that was golden and had the pattern of a black dog with emerald green eyes.

"Harry look, there are presents under the tree," James informed his son, and during the following thirty minutes, the seventeen-month-old was busy trying to dig out presents from under the tree.

Cuddling the stuffed, purple knight bus close, which he had received from Neville's parents, Harry queried, "Nebi pay Hawwy?"

Seeing that his lower lip began to quiver dangerously upon the reply that he would see Neville in two days' time, Lily promised, soothingly, that she'd floo call Alice and ask her over the next morning.

"This afternoon, we don't have time, because we're going to visit Granny Mina at Hogwarts," she told her son, who immediately began to cheer.

"Go Gwanny Mina Hoga," he repeated, happily.

"And tonight," James added, "Padfood and Mooney are going to come here for Christmas dinner."

"Uncy Paf," Harry repeated, smiling. That was the nice uncle who always smiled and did nonsense driving his mummy nuts. He was still unsure what to think about that uncle, as he could not tolerate anyone angering his mummy. She was the best, and she was always there for him, and even for Neville, when he needed her. However, when he received a toddler's broom from Sirius, he decided that his godfather was great fun.

HP

To his chagrin, he could only test his broom in the morning, when his father took turns flying together with him and with Neville on the adult's broom, while the other was allowed to fly on the toddler's broom. Both boys decided that it was a lot of fun - causing Lily and Alice having a livid discussion with James if it would be safe enough to transfigure something into a second toddler's broom.

Finally, Neville's father Frank took the two mothers' side and promised to buy a toddler's broom for Neville soon, so that the two boys could fly together.

HP

Lily could not help feeling relieved when the holidays were over and James, Sirius and Frank went back to work. As much as she loved her husband, she found that he was a bit too reckless in every hindsight, especially when he was together with Sirius - in spite of the fact that they were working as Aurors.

Every second day, Alice and Neville came to visit her and Harry, or she took Harry with her to the Longbottoms, so that the two toddlers could play together. The two friends had grown up together, seeing each other every second day from their birth onwards, and they loved each other dearly.

In fact, Harry also had a cousin, who was just a few weeks older than himself, however, knowing that she and her husband were magical, her horrible sister had decided that she would not allow her precious baby to meet Harry, afraid that Harry could infest her son with magic. In Lily's eyes, it was a great pity, however, there was nothing that she could do about it.

HP

Only by chance, one day, when Lily took Harry shopping in Muggle London, she met a former friend from her Muggle primary school and realised that she had a daughter of about Harry's age. The two children immediately seemed to like each other, and Lily and her friend decided to meet on the playground near their old primary school two days later.

From that time onwards, Harry and the girl became good friends. Her name was Hermione, and there was something like an invisible band that seemed to connect the two toddlers. This did not even change when Hermione was introduced to Neville, and when the toddlers realised that all three of them happened to do the same kind of accidental magic, the three children became inseparable.

_tbc... (if you are interested...)_


	2. Chapter 2

**Pure Chance**  
><strong>by Healer Pomfrey<strong>

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.  
>I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.<em>

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: In this story, Severus Snape will not be as nice as in 95 % of my stories. So don't read if you wish for a story with a nice, fluffy Snape. The dog Barkymort is my own invention from my recent teddylonglong story 'A winter with Barkymort'. Enjoy!<em>**

* * *

><p>When Harry and Neville turned two in the summer, Lily, Alice and Hermione's mother decided after long discussions to take turns teaching the children and playing with them instead of sending them to a Muggle kindergarten.<p>

Knowing that Hermione was a witch, Lily and Alice told the Grangers about magic, and James arranged at the Ministry that the Grangers' fireplace was connected to the Floo network, so that the children and their mothers could easily travel to each other's homes.

It was just a month after Harry's second birthday that his baby sister Carol was born. She was the spitting image of Lily with red hair and emerald green eyes like Harry's, and not only Harry but also Neville and Hermione were delighted to have what they all thought of as their baby sister.

While Harry and Neville willingly took the role of big brothers and fetched toys for the baby or told her stories, Hermione, who turned three shortly after the baby's birth, eagerly helped Lily to change Carol's nappy or give her a bath.

HP

Since the three children got along so well, the three mothers decided to keep up teaching them in private. Moreover, as soon as Carol was able to speak and sit down together with the others, she joined them in their play and learn time, not wanting to be separated from her adored big brother.

By the time the children were supposed to attend primary school, the adults of the three families sat together and after a short discussion decided to keep home schooling the children. They made a rough lesson plan, after which Mrs. Granger was supposed to teach them Reading, Writing and Maths, while Lily should teach them easy Charms and Potions, and Alice would show them easy Transfiguration spells. Her mother-in-law, Augusta Longbottom, offered to teach the children Wizarding Etiquette, something that according to her all magical children were supposed to know before entering Hogwarts.

In spite of the fact that she was two years younger than the boys and almost three years younger than Hermione, Carol insisted on joining the others, and since she behaved well, always quietly listened and seemed to be able to follow the class without problems, the adults did not mind. She even received her own children's wand, when Lily and Alice took the children to the wand maker to buy children's wands for them.

Unfortunately, Harry and Neville still kept falling ill every other week. If one got sick, Lily could be certain that the other would come down with the same bug on the following day at the latest. Knowing that it was bad enough to be ill but even worse for the boys if they were separated, Alice usually brought Neville to Lily, who was not only more competent to look after the sick children as a healer but also had installed a second bed in Harry's room, so that Neville could stay with Harry at any time. Hermione, who was always very disappointed when their class had to be cancelled, usually came over to the Potter house to help Lily care for her best friends, which Lily only allowed, however, if she had a preventive potion at hand. Knowing that Carol would be occupied on two out of three days, Lily decided to finally take the time to do some Potions research in order to perhaps sometime in the future find a cure for her son's and godson's immune systems.

HP

While Neville was extremely interested in Herbology and always begged his father to teach the children whenever he had time, knowing that Herbology had been his best subject at Hogwarts, Harry and Carol were more interested in Potions. Hermione just loved to learn, no matter what it was.

Often after their classes, Harry and Carol accompanied their mother to the Potions lab and studied brewing new recipes. Lily could not help feeling very happy. Besides Charms, Potions had always been her favourite class at Hogwarts, and she was thrilled that her children, especially Harry, seemed to be very adept at brewing. Unbeknownst to the children, she thought that Carol's abilities lay more in the Charms direction.

Unfortunately, in spite of all her attempts, she was not able to find a cure for the boys during the next few years.

HP

It was on Harry's tenth birthday that the children's life slowly began to change. Harry's birthday was a Sunday, and while the Potters and the Grangers had spent the previous day at Longbottom Manor for Neville's birthday, on this day, not only the two other families but also Harry's godfather Sirius along with James' other best friend Remus as well as Professor McGonagall from Hogwarts attended the birthday party. McGonagall had often babysat Harry and Carol, when they had been smaller, and Harry and Caroll were still calling her 'Granny Mina.'

Before Harry knew what happened, something black was hovering in front of him, eagerly licking his face, while Neville, Hermione and Carol could not help laughing.

Only after what seemed like an infinite time could Harry manage to push the black thing out of his face, only to realise that it was cute black puppy with emerald green eyes.

'Hello there,' he suddenly heard a voice speak straight into his mind. 'I'm Barkymort, and I'm your familiar now.'

"Hello Barkymort," Harry said aloud, smiling at the puppy.

"He's a magical dog," Sirius supplied. "You'll be able to communicate telepathically, and he has several special abilities."

"What abilities?" Harry asked, looking from the puppy to his godfather with interest.

"That's for you to find out," Sirius replied, grinning broadly.

"Will I be allowed to take him to Hogwarts with me?" Harry asked, glancing at the professor.

"If he behaves himself, you're welcome to bring him with you," McGonagall replied, smiling.

While neither Lily nor Alice nor their husbands had ever told the children overly much about Hogwarts in order to not take the magic away that they had felt upon first entering the castle as first year students, Professor McGonagall allowed the children to ask as many questions as they wanted - a chance, which Hermione and Carol definitely did not want to miss. During the rest of the afternoon, the two boys merely listened in amazement to Hermione's and Carol's conversation with the Hogwarts professor.

Finally, McGonagall turned to Lily. "Professor Flitwick wishes to retire," she informed her former student. "Would you perhaps be willing to become our Charms professor?"

Lily stared at her old mentor in shock. "I'm sorry Minerva, but as you know, Harry is ten and Carol will be eight next month. The children still need me, plus we're home schooling them together with Hermione and Neville. I just can't..."

"Lily," Minerva interrupted her tirade, smiling. "Next year, when they all come to Hogwarts, would be soon enough. If I told Professor Flitwick that you're going to take over from him, he'll surely be willing to teach for another year."

"All right," Lily replied, thoughtfully. "On the one hand, I always intended to work as a healer again some time, however, on the other hand, maybe it would be good if I was at Hogwarts to look after Harry and Neville, as they're still suffering from their bad immune systems, and Charms has always been my favourite subject apart from Potions."

"Maybe you could speak with Severus about the matter," McGonagall said, pensively. "Perhaps he'd be able to develop some kind of cure for the boys."

"I've been trying that for years," Lily said, darkly. "Apart from that, I'm not sure if Severus will do as much as speak with me. I think he never forgave me that I married James."

"Oh well that might be," McGonagall agreed. "Ever since then, he's been wearing nothing but black clothes, and the seems to have a special grudge against Gryffindor students."

"What about me?" Carol suddenly spoke up, sounding very upset. "May I attend classes together with everyone else?"

The professor looked at the girl in surprise at the sudden outburst.

"Would that be possible?" Lily enquired and explained that Carol had always attended classes together with the others and was at the same level in all subjects.

McGonagall remained pensive for a moment, before she replied, "I must speak with the headmaster and try to convince him. If Professor Dumbledore agrees, it won't be a problem. However, even if Carol hasn't received her Hogwarts letter yet, it might be good if she could give me a reply, as the deadline is today."

Five minutes later, Carol handed the professor the reply to a fictive Hogwarts letter, scribbled in a meticulous hand writing.

HP

From that time onwards, the four children's main discussion point revolved about the question where they were going to be sorted at Hogwarts, especially when Carol received her Hogwarts letter after a few days.

"I can't believe that they allow me to attend classes with you all," she said, happily.

"I think that's because I'm going to become a teacher and won't be able to home school you anymore," Lily replied, smiling at her excited daughter.

"Just see to it that you get into the same house as all of us," Harry instructed his sister, who returned a desperate look. "Barkymort," he turned to the Puppy, "is there any way that you can help us to bribe the Sorting Hat?"

Barkymort stared at Harry from bright, yellow eyes. _'I'm sorry, Harry, but I don't have a clue what to do against the Sorting Hat. I'm looking forward to meeting him though,'_ he replied, telepathically.

HP

"It's going to be boring without you," Alice one day said to Lily. "I wished I could go to Hogwarts with you."

Lily gave her friend a passionate look. "You know you can always visit me. I'll only be a Floo call away, just like now," she replied, soothingly.

"I know," Alice said, darkly. "But still. It would be great to be able to live at Hogwarts. I'd do any job if they could offer me one."

Lily sighed. _'I know that it has to be horrible to be alone with Augusta all day,'_ she thought, feeling very sorry for her friend, before all of a sudden an idea crossed her mind.

"How about teaching History of Magic?" she queried. "Maybe Dumbledore would be willing to make the ghost retire for your sake."

Alice straightened in her seat. "Oh Lily, could you perhaps ask Minerva about it?"

Lily grinned and headed to the fireplace, knowing that shortly before dinner usually was a good time to speak with the Gryffindor head.

HP

"It would be so cool if Mum could come to Hogwarts together with Aunt Lily," Neville whispered to the others, who were sitting in Harry's room listening to the adults' conversation through the open door.

"I hope Mum will be able to convince them," Carol spoke up, casting Neville a genuine smile. "It would be great to have Aunt Alice at Hogwarts as well."

"You're all lucky," Hermione suddenly said, sighing. "I don't have any parent or aunt at Hogwarts."

"Why not?" the other three blurted out, at once, pointing out that Lily Potter was as much her aunt as Neville's, even if she wasn't officially her godmother.

"You also have us," Harry said, gently. "You won't be alone, and if we end up in different houses, we can always meet in my room in our quarters after classes and study together."

"Thank Merlin," Hermione and Neville replied, simultaneously, grinning at each other.

HP

It was on Harry's eleventh birthday that the Potters and the Longbottoms had to move to Hogwarts. Lily and Alice had agreed with their husbands that they should live at Hogwarts together with them, knowing that could easily take the Floo to and from the Ministry. Knowing that Hermione would be very lonely when three of the four children moved to Hogwarts a month earlier, Lily had suggested to Hermione's mother to invite the girl to stay with her until the official beginning of the school year, and Mrs. Granger had immediately agreed, knowing that Hermione would greatly suffer otherwise.

"When are we going to floo to Hogwarts?" Carol asked as soon as they had finished breakfast, only to repeat the question once an hour.

"After Harry's birthday party," Lily replied, patiently, inwardly wondering how long it would take until her daughter was going to accept her response.

As usual, Sirius and Remus came to visit Harry, and Sirius gave his godson a new broom for his birthday. "It's a Nimbus 2000, the newest broom on the market," he informed the boy. "See to it that you get into the house team. I'll surely come and watch you play."

"Thank you Uncle Sirius," Harry replied, happily, carefully letting his hand wander over the smooth wood.

"First years can't get into house teams," Hermione lectured Sirius.

"Yes, but my godson is special," Sirius replied, smirking. "Maybe he'll be able to convince them to abolish that stupid rule."

"That would be so cool," Neville spoke up, and Harry agreed full-heartedly.

Both boys just loved to fly, and they were good flyers. While Neville was better as Keeper though, Harry was a brilliant Seeker. The girls usually preferred to play Chasers, although both of them were not too fond of Quidditch.

"What if we get all into different houses?" Carol spoke up. "Would you want to play against each other?"

"I won't play anyway," Hermione replied, "and you just have to see that you won't end up in other houses. I'll tell you know, my name's the first in the alphabet, so I'm probably going to be called first, and I will definitely try to convince the Sorting Hat to place me into Gryffindor. It's your job to convince him to put you together with me."

_'As if that was so easy,'_ Harry mused, giving Barkymort a questioning look.

_tbc... _

_Thank you for the kind comments for the first chapter!_


	3. Chapter 3

**Pure Chance**  
><strong>by Healer Pomfrey<strong>

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.  
>I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.<em>

* * *

><p>To Harry's and Neville's embarrassment, dinner at Hogwarts turned out to be another birthday party for the two of them. Except for Professor McGonagall, they did not know any of the teachers. First, they were introduced to the headmaster, who was smiling at them, his baby blue eyes twinkling happily.<p>

"Welcome to Hogwarts my boys," he greeted them, only to add, "and girls."

_'He's a bit strange,'_ Harry thought, before he greeted Madam Pomfrey and Rolanda Hooch, who both cast the group of children genuine smiles.

HP

Later, when the two families returned to their adjacent quarters in the hall, where all the teachers' rooms were situated, Harry said to Neville, "Professor Snape seems to greatly dislike me. Did you notice how he looked at me?"

"Yes, I saw that," Neville agreed. "But Professor Quirrell was even worse. My head suddenly began to hurt when I looked at him."

"Yes, same here," Harry replied, thoughtfully. "That's strange, isn't it? Maybe we should tell Mum about it."

The two boys decided to wait and see if it happened again before they'd ask Lily about the matter. However, Hermione, who had witnessed their conversation, spoke up, just when they reached the doors to their quarters.

"You should tell them. I think it might have something to do with your scars, since my head did not hurt when I looked at him."

'The Defence professor is not all right,' Barkymort suddenly voiced his opinion.

"Neville, can you come with us for a few minutes please," Harry asked his friend and, as soon as they had entered the Potter quarters, told his mother about the incident. "Barkymort thinks that there's something wrong with Quirrell," he added.

Lily motioned the children to take a seat, before she explained that she had seen multiple visions about Professor Quirrell and was convinced that he was possessed by Voldemort's spirit. "I've already alerted the headmaster a few weeks ago, and he's searching for a spell to remove or if possible kill the spirit," she added, sighing. "I know that it's very unsettling, and I'd like to ask you, especially Neville and Harry, to never be alone in the halls."

"Don't worry, Mum," Harry replied in a soothing voice. "We're always together, and we have Barkymort with us. Quirrell let alone his spirit would not survive an encounter with him."

"That's true," James Potter threw in, who had just returned home from the ministry. "Maybe Dumbledore should ask the goblins for help. If anyone can invent such a spell, it's them."

"Yes, that's true," Lily agreed. Only when the children were in bed, she told her husband about the Horcruxes that Voldemort had made. Fortunately, she had seen most of them being destroyed in her visions, however, the scenes had been everything but pleasant.

"Is Dumbledore looking into the matter?" James queried, sounding very stern.

"Yes dear, he has all my visions in his Pensieve and promised to see to it that they'd all be destroyed as soon as possible. Unfortunately, he's convinced that Harry and Neville have to finally get rid of Voldemort, in what form ever he might be."

"Thank Merlin that you're a Seer," James said, sighing. "Shouldn't you teach Divination?"

Lily let out a snort. "You can't learn to become a Seer," she replied, firmly. "Either you are one or not. Therefore, I believe that Divination as a subject is not more than a farce, and I won't encourage any of the four children to choose the subject."

James grinned. "Exactly my beautiful wife," he said, before he laid his arms around her shoulders and led her into the bedroom.

HP

While their mothers were busy preparing their lesson plans and everything else for the new school year, the four children and their dog roamed the castle. However, once they discovered the library, Hermione and Carol decided to explore the most interesting room in the whole school, and apart from meal times, Harry and Neville were unable to drag the girls out of the library.

"Well, we can just explore the castle by ourselves," Neville said to Harry.

"Yes, that's true, and since Barkymort is with us, I feel quite safe," Harry agreed immediately_. 'Even if I still don't have a clue what his magical abilities are,'_ he thought but refrained from voicing his thoughts in order to not frighten his friend.

However, it should not take long before the boys were able to discover at least one of Barkymort's specialities.

HP

One day, Lily was sitting in a meeting of the headmaster with the four heads of house, when she was pulled into a vision. Although she had been a Gryffindor during her own time at Hogwarts, the Sorting Hat had admitted to the headmaster that she originally had been supposed to be a Ravenclaw but had talked him out of it in order to be together with her friend Alice. Therefore, Dumbledore had decided to make Lily Flitwick's successor not only as Charms professor but also as the head of Ravenclaw.

"I'm sorry," Lily apologised, interrupting the headmaster's tirade about whatever it was, "Harry and Neville are going to have an encounter with Quirrell," she blurted out and hurried out of the headmaster's office, with her colleagues following her with combinations of curiosity, concern and annoyance.

HP

Harry and Neville were just exploring an unused corridor with Barkymort in tow, when Professor Quirrell showed up right in front of them.

"You need to kill these boys, before they kill me," the boys heard a voice speak, while their heads exploded in pain.

Unaware of the fact that five professors were observing the scene from behind with their wands drawn, the two boys pulled their wands, however, did not further act, uncertain what to do. However, before Quirrell was able to do as much as try to harm the boys, Barkymort shot forward and jumped at the professor, biting fiercely into the wizard's wedding tackle as he reached the intended height. An instant later, Quirrell was lying on the floor, both hands pressed against the hurting spot.

'Well done, Barkymort,' Harry commended his familiar.

'I'm not done yet,' Barkymort thought back and began to fervently attack the back of Quirrell's head, burying his teeth into the smelly turban multiple times, before a black cloud emerged from the back of Quirrell's head.

Only when the headmaster quickly cast a spell that captured the black cloud and destroyed it with a second spell did the boys notice their audience.

"What did you do?" Dumbledore enquired, turning to the two boys.

Harry and Neville exchanged a glance, before Harry hesitantly began to speak. "Barkymort..."

"It's Voldemort, Harry," the headmaster interrupted him in a kind yet firm voice.

"Voldemort told Professor Quirrell to kill us," Neville supplied, deciding to leave Barkymort out of the story for the time being.

"Yes, we heard that," Dumbledore threw in, sounding slightly impatient. "And what did you do then?"

"Nothing sir," Harry replied, recalling that McGonagall had once said Barkymort was allowed at Hogwarts if he behaved himself.

"Strange, but let's say that you were very lucky," Dumbledore said, glancing at his colleagues, who nodded their agreement. After calling Madam Pomfrey, who immediately began to take care of Professor Quirrell, he motioned everyone including the students into his office, where he spoke up, thoughtfully.

"I believe that it's too dangerous for Harry and Neville to roam the halls just by themselves. Maybe they could assist one or the other teacher until the beginning of the school year."

The teachers looked at each other, before McGonagall made a suggestion. "As far as I know, Neville is very interested in Herbology. Pomona, would you be interested to have Neville assist you?"

"I can very well use a good assistant," the Hufflepuff head replied, smiling at the excited boy.

"Harry is very adept at Potions," McGonagall continued. "Severus, would you like to have an assistant for the last weeks of the holidays?"

The Potions Master quirked an eyebrow and sneered, "Yes, I know that 'Potters'," he spat the name, "are capable of everything, but I don't need anyone."

"Well then Harry can assist me," Lily said, lightly, careful to not let her anger about her former classmate show.

"On a different note, we urgently need a new Defence professor," Dumbledore continued, looking around, questioningly.

"Remus Lupin," Lily was the first to reply, causing the Potions Master to groan.

"A werewolf? Really?" he sneered.

"I've been brewing the Wolfsbane potion for him ever since I took the Potions Mastery five years ago," Lily countered, "and Harry has been assisting me. If something happened so that I wouldn't be able to brew it, Harry could well brew it for Remus."

"I believe that this would be the very best solution," McGonagall threw in, smiling.

Even the headmaster ignored the Potions professor's snort and agreed. He called Twinkle, his personal house-elf, and instructed him to add a Potions lab to the Potter quarters according to Lily's wishes, before he asked his deputy to make an appointment for Remus Lupin to come to Hogwarts as soon as possible.

_'Uncle Mooney is going to come to Hogwarts,' _Harry thought, happily. _'How cool is that?'_

HP

Only when they were back in the Potter quarters, Lily asked Harry and Neville, "You said something about Barkymort. In which way was he involved in the incident with Professor Quirrell?"

"He saved us from him," Harry replied, proudly caressing the dog's head and ears. "He's a hero."

"He was invisible to us," Lily said, giving the dog a questioning look.

'Yes yes, I can make myself invisible if needed,' Barkymort thought to Harry, before he curled up to a ball and drifted off to sleep under Harry's soft touch.

HP

"And we missed such exciting things?" Carol blurted out, when she returned from the library together with Hermione. "You should have called us."

"When?" Harry asked in amusement. "When Quirrell stood in front of us and Voldemort instructed him to kill us? Very funny."

'Thanks a lot, Barkymort,' he thought to the dog later at night, when Barkymort crawled under Harry's bed covers like he did every evening.

HP

To everyone's relief, Remus Lupin accepted the position of the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, provided that Lily and Harry would provide him with the Wolfsbane potion every month.

"Severus won't take this well," Lily said to her husband in the evening of the last day of the holidays, "especially considering that he's the sole official Potions Master of Hogwarts."

"He seems to have a grudge against our whole family anyway," James replied, shrugging. "Just ignore him. There's nothing that you can do about it."

"That's true," Lily agreed, relaxing into his embrace. "I just hope that none of the children will be sorted into his house."

However, it soon became evident that not all of her wishes were going to become reality.

_tbc..._

_Thank you for the kind comments for the last chapter!_


	4. Chapter 4

**Pure Chance**  
><strong>by Healer Pomfrey<strong>

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.  
>I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.<em>

* * *

><p>Harry observed with mixed feelings how Hermione was sorted into Gryffindor like she had told them she'd try. <em>'Maybe it's indeed possible to bribe the Hat,'<em> he thought, when Neville stumbled forward to have the Hat sort him. It took a moment, but then, the Hat shouted into the Hall, "Hufflepuff."

_'Oh no,'_ Harry thought, while his sister stepped forward. A mere instant later, she became sorted into Ravenclaw. _'Three different houses,'_ he realised, horrified. _'I just hope I won't end up in Slytherin.'_

The Hat's brim was so large that he could not see anything. However, he suddenly heard the Hat speak into his mind, just like Barkymort used to do.

'This is difficult. What am I going to do with you?'

'Gryffindor please, so I can at least be together with one of my friends,' Harry thought back, feeling very upset.

'No, that would be boring,' the Hat replied. 'You fit much more into...' He quietened down only to shout into the hall, "Slytherin."

_'Oh no,'_ Harry thought, casting his mother a panicking look, as he slowly trailed to the Slytherin table.

HP

To Harry's relief, the other Slytherin first-years seemed all very nice. However, alone the knowledge that his head of house was holding grudges against him and his family made him wish that he had been sorted elsewhere.

After the welcome feast, a house meeting took place in Slytherin. Together with his classmates, Harry sat in the middle of the circle that the older students made by sitting on the floor of the common room and waited for the professor to arrive. From the corner of his eyes, Harry saw how Barkymort made himself comfortable on the small carpet in front of the fireplace that looked outright cosy.

_'Thank Merlin I've got Barkymort with me,'_ Harry thought, feeling strangely consoled at the comforting presence of his familiar. _'I'm not alone.'_

The professor finally strode to the centre of the circle and began to speak. "Although I personally believe that the Sorting Hat has gone nuts, you have all been sorted into Slytherin. Being in Slytherin is something special," the teacher informed them, before he drove into a tirade about house unity, house points within the house in form of snakes and toads and the fact that the old Slytherin dormitories had been replaced by bedrooms for two students. Finally, he instructed the first-years to introduce themselves.

To Harry's relief, he was the last to have to speak, so that he had some time to ponder what to say. However, when it was his turn, the professor called his name, adding, "our new celebrity."

Deciding to ignore the professor's words for the time being, Harry merely said, "I'm Harry, and so far I've been home schooled together with my sister and my two best friends, but I'm happy to be finally allowed to study at Hogwarts. My favourite subject is Potions."

He felt the professor's glare linger on him, however, he kept his eyes away. Instead he glanced at the fireplace, where Barkymort was lying in a seemingly comfortable position looking at him as if to reassure him.

Finally, everyone rose from the floor, and while Harry patiently waited for the crowd to head their ways, Blaise Zabini stepped over to him. "Harry, we share a room. Come, let's go. It's bed time for the first years."

_'Thank Merlin, Blaise is very nice,'_ Harry thought and telepathically informed Barkymort that he was going to retreat to his room.

"Excuse me Blaise," he spoke up, hesitantly, when they entered the room. "Do you mind if my familiar joins me?"

Blaise looked at him in clear amusement. "Is it something like a basilisk, or why do you ask?"

"No," Harry replied, grinning. "It's a dog."

"No problem at all," Blaise said, chuckling. "Maybe it would be better if the professor didn't see him though, especially as he seems to be in a very bad mood tonight. At least that's what I heard from some older students."

"He can make himself invisible," Harry said, sighing, and explained that the professor seemed to hate him and his family for some reason. "Probably my sorting into Slytherin is the reason for his bad mood."

HP

However, the professor's mood was not going to lighten easily. Even when Snape distributed the timetables during breakfast, he looked at Harry in clear disdain. Harry inwardly groaned, however, he resolved to not attract the professor's attention in any way, hoping that the older wizard would leave him in peace if he did not provoke or anger him.

Harry's first class was Transfiguration, together with the first year Gryffindors. When he entered the classroom, Hermione was already sitting in the first row, casting him a huge smile that made Harry slip into the empty seat next to her without considering the matter.

Blaise sat next to him, however, whispered, "Aren't we supposed to sit on the other side of the aisle? We're sitting between the Gryffindors."

"Does it matter?" Harry asked in surprise and introduced Hermione to Blaise.

"No, it does not matter," Professor McGonagall replied to his question after transforming back from her feline form, in which she had been sitting on the desk right in front of them witnessing their conversation. "On the contrary, I believe that it's a good thing to try remedying the house rivalry. Five points each to Mr. Potter and Mr. Zabini for working on it."

During his first class at Hogwarts, Harry enjoyed himself greatly, especially when he once again earned five points for Slytherin after managing to transfigure his match into a needle, a transfiguration, which otherwise only Hermione achieved.

_'I already got ten points for Slytherin,'_ he thought, feeling very happy, as he led his classmates down to the dungeons for their second morning class. _'I just hope the professor will behave in class,' _he thought with a feeling of foreboding, when he entered the Potions classroom.

Once again, Harry sat between Hermione and Blaise in the first row and awaited the professor's arrival.

HP

Severus Snape swept down to the front of the classroom, grumpily. _'Stupid Potter in this class,'_ he thought, _'and worse even that the boy's in my house. If he's so good at Potions, and he should be, considering that Lily was as good as I was at school, there's no way that I can ridicule him in front of everyone. Maybe,'_ he thought, _'I could ask some special questions that only people know who can brew the Wolfsbane by heart.'_ Pushing all thoughts of the boy from his mind for the time being, he held his traditional monologue about the fine art of potions brewing, before he noticed that the boy who should not be in his house used the time to scribble something onto a parchment.

"Potter," he bellowed, noticing contentedly that the boy almost jumped from his seat in shock. "How dare you not pay attention in my class? What is..."

"Excuse me sir," the boy had the gall to interrupt him, "I was merely taking notes of what you explained to us."

Severus inwardly groaned, however, went ahead with his plan to ask something about the Wolfsbane, which was a difficult question even for an experienced brewer. However, to his horror, the boy knew the answer and replied flawlessly. Not wanting to award house points, even if it would have been for his own house, Severus merely continued where he had stopped with his monologue, deciding to ignore the boy whom he hated with a passion for the time being.

HP

Harry sighed in relief, when he could answer the question that the professor asked him. _'No one else would have known that,'_ he thought, knowing that it was only by chance that his mother had informed him about that detail a few weeks ago.

Finally, the professor made them brew a very easy healing potion, which was the base for most other healing potions, so that Harry knew it by heart. He swiftly fetched his ingredients and began to brew and was already half through the brewing process, when the professor suddenly admonished him to open his book on the respective page.

"As soon as I've finished the first stage, sir," Harry replied, knowing that it would take a few more minutes until he'd reach a stage, at which he could place the potion under a stasis charm.

However, the professor did not want to wait so long and took five points from Slytherin for Harry's insolence. While Blaise and Hermione stared at the professor and finally at Harry in utmost surprise, Harry merely shrugged and continued with his brewing. As soon as he finished the potion, he bottled it and cast an unbreakable charm at the phial, before he placed it on the professor's desk like they had been instructed.

"What a git," Hermione said, compassionately, when they finally left the Potions classroom.

"And my head of house at that," Harry agreed, sighing.

"He's said to never take points off Slytherin," Blaise threw in, smirking. "Maybe that's going to change now with Harry in his house."

"Probably," Harry replied, grimly.

HP

It was a few hours later that Harry noticed that he was getting sick. He dragged himself through his Defence class, feeling extremely grateful that Remus had paired him with Hermione, who noticed that he seemed to be under the weather and went easy on him. After the class, he told Blaise and Hermione that he was feeling ill and would go to see his mother for some potions.

"I'll tell them if anyone asks for you," Blaise promised, while Hermione insisted to accompany him to Lily.

Lily only had to look at the boy to know that Harry wouldn't be able to go anywhere else but his bed during the rest of the day and sent him to bed, before she cast a diagnostic spell.

"The wizard's flu again," she said, sighing. "We'll see if you'll be well enough to attend classes in the morning. I'll inform Professor Snape at dinner."

"He's an absolute git. Mione, tell her," Harry whispered, already drifting off into a potions induced slumber.

Hermione put the memory of her Potions class into Lily's Pensieve and gently wiped Harry's flushed face with a cold cloth, while Lily watched her memory.

"We were best friends until our fifth Hogwarts year," she explained to the girl who was like a daughter to her. "He said something really unforgivable to me, and then I separated from him. He never forgave me that I married James, who was his childhood enemy. That's why he hates our whole family with a passion. I feel very sorry for Harry though, because nothing of this is his fault. He doesn't even know about it yet."

HP

Thirty minutes later, Lily approached the head table and informed her colleague that her son was ill with the wizard's flu and would not be able to return to Slytherin that night.

"Is he in the hospital wing?" Snape drawled, his face void of emotion.

"No, he's in my quarters in his own bed," Lily replied in a soft voice, glad that Professor McGonagall was sitting next to the Potions Master following their conversation.

"If he wants to be excused from class or from spending the night in his dormitory, only Madam Pomfrey can excuse him," Snape informed her in an icy tone.

"Severus, this is ridiculous," Minerva came to her help. "Lily is a healer. She's even more qualified than Poppy, who is only a Mediwitch. It's clear that the boy prefers to be treated by his mother, especially since Harry tends to fall ill every other week. Please accept it if Lily excuses him."

"Headmaster?" the Potions Master queried, mumbling something that sounded like "Pampered brat."

"Severus, I believe that it suffices if Lily excuses him," Dumbledore decided in a firm voice, casting his Potions Master an apologetic look.

Snape nodded in understanding and took ten points off his own house, because the boy had not informed him about the matter before seeking out his mother's help.

Lily shook her head in annoyance, thinking, _'Thank Merlin I'm here with Harry. I don't know how he would fare here alone. Severus is really horrible.'_

HP

Two days later, Neville fell ill as well, however, Professor Sprout easily accepted that the boy was used to being looked after by his godmother and would spend a day in the Potter quarters.

Lily even went to speak with Madam Pomfrey, who was not pleased about the matter but finally accepted that the Potter children as well as Hermione and Neville would be looked after by Lily if the need arose - especially when Lily promised her that she would be willing to assist Poppy if her help was needed in busy times.

"I know Severus well, Lily," Poppy told her. "He won't leave Harry in peace, especially as he is the spitting image of James. It's good that he is in Severus' own house though, otherwise he'd take tons of house points every day."

Rolling her eyes in annoyance, Lily returned home to discuss the problem of her former classmate with her husband.

_tbc..._

_Thank you for the kind comments... _


	5. Chapter 5

**Pure Chance**  
><strong>by Healer Pomfrey<strong>

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.  
>I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.<em>

* * *

><p>Hermione, who had caught the flu from Harry, recovered right on time for the first-years' first Flying class. However, to her and Harry's chagrin, the class turned out outright boring, and - after observing some of their classmates trying to do as much as mount their broom in vain - Harry, Hermione, Blaise and Draco begged the instructor if they could play a round of Quidditch in the meantime.<p>

Hooch grudgingly agreed and handed Draco a Snitch to play with. The four students happily took into the air for an ad hoc Seeker scrimmage, which Harry won after mere three minutes. They repeated the process three more times, however, Harry won every time, causing Hooch to call him down in surprise.

"Have you ever thought of playing on the house team?" she asked, eagerly.

"Yes, but first years aren't allowed to play," Harry replied, sighing.

"The Slytherin house team is in dire need of a Seeker," Hooch informed him. "If you're interested, I'll speak with my colleagues about that stupid first-year rule later on."

Harry shook his head. "I am interested, but Snape hates me with a passion. He'll never allow me to play on the team. Hermione is a good Chaser though as is my sister, and Neville Longbottom would make a good Keeper, in case Hufflepuff needs one."

Hooch stared at the boy, wide-eyed. "Indeed, Hufflepuff needs a good Keeper. I'll see what I can do to convince my colleagues."

HP

Harry was not overly surprised when he returned to the Slytherin common room on time for curfew only to end up in the middle of a huge discussion, in which the whole house seemed to be involved.

"What happened?" he whispered to Blaise.

"Come with me," Blaise instructed him and led him to one of the fifth-year students. "This is Marcus, our Quidditch captain. Marcus, this is Harry."

"Harry," Marcus spoke up, eyeing him with apparent interest. "Would you be willing to attend our Quidditch practice?"

"Of course," Harry replied in surprise, "but..."

Marcus held up his hand to stop him. "All the teachers agreed to skip the stupid first-year rule and have some good players on their teams, everyone except for Professor Snape. He refuses to accept you as our Seeker because you're a first year. Maybe if he sees you fly with us in practice, he'll see reason."

Harry shook his head. "No Marcus, sorry, but he won't. His sole reason is that he hates me and my whole family with a passion. He won't let me play. If I was a second-year, he'd find another excuse."

"Isn't it up to the captain to decide on the players?" Draco threw in. "Harry is an amazing Seeker."

"Yes, but the head of house has to approve the captain's decisions," Marcus informed them. "There's not much that we can do if he doesn't want to agree, but we'll see. I'll discuss the matter with the other team members and some of the prefects."

"Thank you Marcus," Harry replied, smiling.

HP

Unbeknownst to the students, a similar conversation was taking place in the staffroom.

"Harry is the best Seeker that we had in decades," Madam Hooch said, enthusiastically.

"He's a first-year," Snape replied. "Just because a Potter comes to Hogwarts, we have to skip all the rules? Not with me."

"Ah Severus, you only say that because you hate my son with a passion. Your behaviour during his first days here shows it," Lily replied, sadly shaking her head.

"I second that," Minerva agreed immediately. "If Harry was a second-year, you'd find another excuse to not let him play on the team. But be my guest. I'm glad to have a chance at the Quidditch cup, which we surely wouldn't have if Harry played for Slytherin."

"Now now, as much as I can understand you all, you can't force Severus to accept a student on the house team against his will," the headmaster spoke up, calmingly.

HP

Harry did not expect the professor to relent. Nevertheless, he attended Quidditch practice as reserve Seeker, just because he liked to play, and to his team's surprise, he always caught the Snitch before the Seeker had even spotted it.

It was in the evening of the day before the first match of the season, Slytherin versus Gryffindor, that Marcus told his team, "I think I'm going to resign."

"Me too," the Seeker added, immediately. "Why should I play Seeker for our team, although Harry is so much better? Just because our head of house holds some personal grudges? This is ridiculous."

"Marcus and Ben, don't do such a thing," Harry advised his housemates. "He'll only make someone else captain and Seeker. Just play tomorrow."

HP

Not wanting to even watch the match, Harry retreated to the Potions classroom in order to use the professor's absence to brew two potions. One was a fever reducing potion, which he wanted to have in stock in case he was ill and was not able to go his mother right away, while the second was a prank potion, which he wanted to use on the Potions professor sometime in the near future.

He spent two hours in the Potions classroom, unaware that the Slytherin Seeker was absentminded while flying and fell from his broom. Madam Pomfrey healed his broken rib but forbade him to continue flying for the day. Therefore, several students ran back into the castle to look for him in order to have him play Seeker instead. Fortunately, Blaise knew where he was and came to inform him.

Harry inwardly groaned. "All right, Blaise, but I need five more minutes here to finish this," he said, urgently. "It'll take me fifteen minutes before I'll be on the Quidditch pitch."

Blaise dashed away, and Harry hurriedly finished his brewing, cleaned the classroom with a flick of his wand, hid the potions in the shelf behind his bed and hurried outside, where the match had already resumed - without a Slytherin Seeker.

"Twenty points from Slytherin for tardiness," he heard Snape mumble, when he took into the air, trying to push all thoughts about his head of house away from his mind as he concentrated on catching the Snitch - which he managed five minutes later.

"Harry Potter caught the Snitch. Slytherin wins," he heard Madam Hooch announce and contentedly landed on the grounds, where Blaise, Carol and Neville were already waiting for him.

"Please tell everyone that I'm in my parents' quarters," Harry informed Blaise, not wanting to meet the Slytherin head again during the afternoon.

"I fully understand," Blaise said, smiling, before Carol and Neville pulled Harry away.

HP

"What is the potion you brewed?" Carol asked, curiously, causing Harry to chuckle.

"You'll see it later on. I intended to use it on him at dinner time," Harry replied, thoughtfully, before he called his mother's personal house-elf, Conny, and instructed her to fetch the phial from his bedroom in Slytherin and spell the potion straight into Professor Snape's stomach.

"I will," Conny confirmed immediately.

'Barkymort, will you please remain near Snape during dinner tonight? Invisibly of course,' Harry asked his familiar, who sent some comforting thoughts back.

"So what's the potion going to do to him?" Carol asked again.

Harry chuckled. "As soon as a dog comes near him, he's going to bark instead of speaking," he replied, grinning.

"That sounds difficult," Neville said in apparent admiration. "Where did you get the recipe?"

"I invented it," Harry said, laughing at his friend's surprised expression.

HP

Harry's potion was a huge success to the amusement of the whole student body. Even when Snape came into the Slytherin common room at the beginning of curfew, he was still occasionally barking, when Barkymort came near him to amuse everyone.

"Potter!" Snape suddenly shouted, causing Harry to instinctively look at the seemingly enraged professor.

However, as soon as green eyes met the teacher's onyx orbs, Harry felt an unpleasant presence in his mind, and the occurrences of the afternoon played in front of his mind. Harry fiercely tried to push the memory of him in the Potions classroom away, however, there was nothing that he could do about it. Finally, the memories ended, and he felt the other presence retreat from his mind, leaving him with a tremendous headache.

"Potter," the professor said in an icy voice. "Detention with me every evening after dinner until the beginning of the winter holidays, and you're going to accompany me to the headmaster's office NOW."

Harry did not even try to keep up with the professor's fast space but slowly followed his head of house to the headmaster's office, trying in vain to get his headache in grip by rubbing his forehead every now and then.

To his annoyance, the professor was waiting for him at the gargoyle in front of the stairs leading to the headmaster's office, mumbling something like "about time."

Harry chose to not reply, deciding to save his energy for a possible fight with the adults in Dumbledore's office.

"Severus, Harry," the headmaster greeted them in a friendly voice, before he turned to Harry. "Congratulations to your Quidditch victory," he said, gently, causing Harry to shrug and the professor to let out a snort.

"Albus, we did not come here to speak about Quidditch," he said in a firm voice. "Potter saw fit to use the Potions classroom without permission to brew a potion for the prank that he played on me."

Dumbledore looked from the Potions Master to the first-year. Harry nodded, before he replied, "Professor Snape attacked my mind to find out about this, sir. I don't know what it was, but are professors allowed to attack their students that way? Ever since then I have a splitting headache."

The headmaster let out a deep sigh. "That was Legilimency, my boy. Go and see your mother after our meeting here. I'm sure she'll be able to give you something to remedy your headache. As to the prank potion, on the one hand, I wish to congratulate you for brewing an efficient potion that worked wonderfully and contributed to everyone's amusement. On the other hand, I do not wish anyone to prank just one other person. If you ever feel the need to brew a prank potion for someone again, please involve the whole head table and not just one single teacher. Is that clear my boy?"

"Yes sir," Harry replied, simply.

With that the headmaster turned to Snape. "Severus, please try to get along with Harry and do not use Legilimency on any student without their permission."

"Yes sir," Snape replied, evenly.

"If that was all," Dumbledore continued, clearly dismissing the two younger wizards.

"No sir," Harry spoke up, quickly. "Professor Snape assigned me detention until the beginning of the winter holidays. However, next Saturday night, I have to assist my mother brewing the Wolfsbane potion. Will I please be excused from my detention for that night?"

"No," the Potions Master replied immediately.

However, the headmaster sighed, lightly shaking his head in apparent annoyance. "Harry, you will not serve detentions during the weekends, only from Monday to Friday and also not during the evenings, on which you have to brew the Wolfsbane," he decided, "and this is my last word in this matter, Severus," he added as an afterthought.

"Thank you sir," Harry replied in relief. "Good night, Professor Dumbledore." With that he left the office and immediately hurried to his parents' quarters.

HP

"Mum, Dad, is there a way to be resorted?" he asked after gulping down a headache potion.

"I don't think so," Lily replied, casting James a questioning look.

"I've never heard about such a thing, but we can ask the headmaster," his father suggested.

Harry let out a deep sigh and said, sadly, "Otherwise maybe I should leave Hogwarts. Seven years with Snape as my head of house sound like a very long nightmare."

"Harry, don't do anything right now," Lily said, pensively. "I had a few visions, and I've been thinking about them for a while now. Let me discuss everything with your father and with Professor McGonagall, and perhaps you'll be able to get away from Professor Snape earlier. I can't promise anything though. Until then, I can only suggest that you behave, don't prank him and don't do anything else that would give him the opportunity to punish you."

"Yes Mum," Harry replied and bade his parents good night, before he retreated to his own room, wondering what his mother might be planning.

_tbc..._

_Happy New Year!_

_My new oneshot story "All Because of Snow" should be accessible now. I had to delete it and upload it again twice due to a ffnet problem. Sorry for the unnecessary alert mails. If it still does not work, it is completely uploaded to my Facebook page as well._


	6. Chapter 6

**Pure Chance**  
><strong>by Healer Pomfrey<strong>

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.  
>I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.<em>

* * *

><p><strong><em>A.N. If you notice in chapter 1 that you don't like a story, then don't be so stupid and read and review until the end - only idiots waste their time like that. If you don't like one of my stories, don't bother reading the others - you won't like them either, and I don't care! Do you and me the favour and stay away from my stories. Thank you.<em>**

* * *

><p>If Harry had expected that the professor would make him brew potions during his detentions, which he - of course - had not, he would have been disappointed, because all he had to do was to clean dirty cauldrons - without magic as the professor made very clear from the beginning.<p>

Nevertheless, Harry was very annoyed to have to spend all the evenings apart from the weekends - the only time, during which he could be together with Carol and Neville, since they did not even have classes together - serving detention. From his housemates, who were all on his side against the professor, he had heard that Professor Snape had barely ever made a Slytherin student serve detention. He merely gave them toads, for which they could make up by gathering snakes. However, this possibility was not offered to Harry, although he had received ten snakes for catching the Snitch in the Quidditch match. It was not as if the professor had willingly added the snakes, however, the other team members had reminded him so often that he grudgingly added them to Harry's hour glass.

Fortunately, Barkymort chose to keep Harry company, so that the boy was never alone during his detentions. Moreover, he kept him entertained with funny stories about the professors and other students.

'How do you know that?' Harry thought back one day, after Barkymort had apparently been witnessing a feline party between McGonagall, Pomfrey, Hooch and Snape in McGonagall's living room. 'Are they really all cat Animagi?'

Barkymort chuckled. 'As you know, I'm making myself invisible to everyone but you, your family and your best friends. Doors don't keep me out, even if they're closed, so sometimes, I'm spending some time spying on the teachers, which is great fun. And yes, the three witches are normal cats, and Snape is a magical lynx.'

Sometimes, Harry had a hard time to not laugh aloud, since the Potions Master, after he once witnessed how Harry had cleaned the cauldrons with wandless magic, used to either sit at his desk and grade homework or busy himself brewing potions in order to supervise the boy.

Unbeknownst to Harry, the headmaster and his deputy had tried to convince the Potions professor multiple times to make Harry brew potions during his detention in order to reduce his own work load. However, the professor had always refused, insisting that it wouldn't be a punishment if the boy was allowed to do something that he obviously liked.

One day, however, on the last evening before the leaving feast, Madam Pomfrey entered the Potions classroom, where the professor was grading tests and Harry was cleaning cauldrons.

"Severus and Harry," she spoke up, sounding as if in a hurry, "I need both of you to cooperate and brew some potions for me. A group of Hufflepuff seventh year students have fallen ill with the mermaid's flu. Therefore, I urgently need the flu potion for the mermaid's flu for six students as well as the preventive potion for the rest of the school. Otherwise, no one will be able to return home for the Christmas holidays on the day after tomorrow. If each of you could brew one of the potions, we'd be able to administer them on time for curfew."

"We need more than one batch for the antidote. We need at least three," Snape replied, thoughtfully, before he turned to Harry. "Can you brew either of the potions?"

"Sure," Harry replied, surprised, "if you have the recipe."

A moment later, the professor placed a recipe next to Harry with the instruction to prepare the double amount of ingredients right away, as he had to brew two batches, one after the other.

Seeing that Harry began to prepare his cauldron, Madam Pomfrey left, unobtrusively smiling at the boy.

To Harry's surprise, brewing together with Snape was not much different from when he was brewing together with his mother. The Potions Master remained quiet and only looked over to what Harry was doing from time to time. However, he seemed contented with the boy's performance and did not comment.

It was almost two o'clock in the morning, when the last batch of the preventive potion was finished. "Go to bed," the professor instructed Harry. "Don't miss breakfast in the morning, as the preventive potion will be mixed under everyone's breakfast."

"Yes sir," Harry replied and was just about to leave the Potions classroom, when the professor added, "Consider your detention for tomorrow served tonight," causing Harry to stare at his head of house in surprise.

"Yes sir, good night," he replied and headed straight to his bedroom, wondering why the professor had been so friendly.

Unfortunately, in the morning, nothing was left of the professor's rare friendliness, not even when one of the prefects informed the whole house that Slytherin had more house points than any other house due to the fact that Madam Pomfrey had awarded Harry one hundred points for Slytherin.

_'Thank Merlin we're going to go home tomorrow,'_ Harry thought in relief as he trailed to the Great Hall behind Hermione, Blaise and Draco.

HP

The winter holidays were wonderful. Harry thoroughly enjoyed being together with his parents and Carol, and Neville and Hermione came to visit every now and then. In contrary to himself, the other three were absolutely happy at Hogwarts, apart from the fact that they were all in different houses.

"Is there nothing that you can do against Snape?" Carol asked her parents, sounding very upset. "Yes, he's not extremely nice to me either, but at least he's not my head of house, so I don't really care."

"I do care if he continues taking hundreds of house points from Ravenclaw," Lily replied, smirking. "At least you gain enough points from other teachers to make up for it."

"But there's nothing that you can do against Snape," James threw in. "As long as he doesn't hurt Harry, which he's not stupid enough to do, we can't complain."

HP

The second half of Harry's first year was not different in any way, at least what the Slytherin head's behaviour towards one of his little snakes concerned. Slytherin lost all three remaining Quidditch matches, and after the last match, Ben officially retired as Seeker. Nevertheless, Harry was almost certain that the professor would come up with an excuse why he could not make Harry Seeker after the summer holidays.

HP

During the summer holidays, something happened that made Lily and James very upset at Professor Dumbledore. One day, the Potters, Longbottoms and Grangers took all four children to Diagon Alley in order to buy new robes for the soon-to-be second years as well as their school supplies. At Flourish & Blotts, they met Draco together with his father. While Harry and Draco had been good friends from the beginning of their first year onwards, Harry disliked Mr. Malfoy immediately, and this feeling only intensified, when Malfoy after greeting the Potters and Longbottoms spoke to the Grangers.

"Ah Miss Granger," he turned to Hermione. "Draco has told me much about you," he said, "but I heard that your parents are Muggles?"

Harry had heard enough and turned away with disgust, glad that his father was standing right next to Mr. Granger and would interfere in the conversation if necessary. After the incident with Mr. Malfoy, none of the children was in the mood to remain any longer in the bookstore and fairly quickly left.

"How strange," Harry spoke up, when they were back at home. "Draco is so nice, how can he have such a horrible father?"

While Lily let out a snort, James cast Harry a stern look. "Mr. Malfoy is one of the biggest followers of Voldemort," he explained in a firm voice. "Don't trust him and be extremely careful if you ever meet him again. He probably only tolerates that you're Draco's friend because you're in Slytherin."

"I'll be careful," Harry promised, just when Carol stormed into the room, holding out a black book.

"Harry," she spoke up with excitement, "this book was between my other books, but it's completely blank. I thought it was a diary, but when I tried to write something, the book replied. How cool is that?"

James immediately held out his hand. "Give me that," he demanded. "Books don't reply if not by magic, possibly dark magic. Whoever mixed this into your books, surely didn't have good intentions."

Carol looked at her father in apparent surprise, but obediently handed over the book. James fetched a quill and wrote on the first page, 'Hello, I'm James Potter.'

Immediately afterwards, a meticulous writing appeared underneath his own. 'Hello James, I am Tom Riddle.'

Harry observed in surprise how his father visibly paled upon seeing the writing. "I'm sure that was Malfoy," James spoke up, seemingly horrified. "Tom Riddle is Voldemort. Sorry Carol, but I'm going to take the book to the Ministry. The Department of Magical Mysteries will be able to destroy it."

"James," Lily spoke up, who had so far quietly listened to her family's conversation, "please show them my memory about the Horcruxes. Since Dumbledore doesn't seem to make any progress on this matter, maybe it would be good to ask the Ministry."

HP

It was two weeks later, and Harry had almost forgotten about the matter, when James returned from work with the information that all Horcruxes, about which the Ministry knew from Lily's visions, had been found and destroyed. "They told me they were not sure if Harry's and Neville's scars might be Horcruxes, but since Voldemort didn't kill anyone at the time when they received the scars, I don't think that there's any danger," he added.

"No. Rubbish, they can't be Horcruxes, even if they're somehow connected to Voldemort," Lily agreed with her husband. "So the Ministry was able to do what Dumbledore did not manage in a whole year. Good to know."

HP

On the day before the Potters were going to return to Hogwarts, together with the Longbottoms and Hermione, James informed the children that he was going to become the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor for one year.

"Remus Lupin will remain at Hogwarts," he reassured the children upon noticing their questioning look, however, he can't remain the Defence professor due to a curse that Voldemort placed on the position. However, we hope that he'll be able to resume the post after a year. Otherwise Frank or Sirius will take over. The Ministry has agreed to send one of the Aurors to Hogwarts each year if necessary."

"That's great, Dad," Harry was the first to reply. "I know you're going to be a brilliant Defence teacher, just like Uncle Moony was. It's great to know that he can remain at Hogwarts though."

"Yes, it's nice of Professor McGonagall to give him the head of house position," Carol agreed, smiling.

"Too bad that he couldn't become the Slytherin head of house," Harry added, grimly.

"Harry, do you want to be exempt from your Potions classes?" Lily suddenly spoke up, grinning mischievously.

Harry let out a long sigh, before he replied, thoughtfully, "On the one hand, I'd like that, because he really treats me unfairly, but on the other hand, it's my favourite subject, plus he'd even be meaner if I was exempt from his class for some reason."

"Yes, that's true," Lily agreed and admitted, "I've had some conversations with former Hogwarts students who are working at the Ministry of Magic. Anyway, if you wish - and only then - you could take your Potions OWL during the last week of the holidays or even the NEWT if you wanted."

"My Potions OWL and NEWT?" Harry repeated in disbelief. "Would I be able to pass them though? I didn't study for them at all."

"You would," Lily replied, smiling. "Otherwise, I wouldn't have suggested it to you."

"I'll do it then," Harry decided, although he was still not very convinced. _'If Mum thinks that I'll pass it, I'll at least try it out,'_ he resolved.

HP

Three weeks later, Harry spent two days at the Ministry of Magic - unbeknownst to everyone but his parents, godparents, siblings and best friends - and took his Potions OWL and NEWT. Neither the theoretical exams that took place in the mornings nor the practical parts in the afternoon were overly difficult for him, and he had the impression as if he had passed both exams. _'I don't care how well I passed though. Thank Merlin that Mum taught me so much,'_ he thought, when he climbed into the fireplace after the second test day to floo back home to his parents' quarters at Hogwarts.

"Of course it's important how well you did," Hermione scolded him lightly. "If you decide to become a Potions Master after finishing Hogwarts, you need good grades, especially in Potions."

"If I become a Potions Master, I need to take the Potions Mastery anyway," Harry disagreed. "If I do all right in that, no one will care about my OWL or NEWT."

"Oh well," Hermione relented and suggested. "Since it's the last day of the holidays, shall we take Barkymort for a walk?"

Harry immediately agreed, and the two soon-to-be second years went for a long walk with the dog.

"I hope Professor Snape will allow you to play on the house team this year," Hermione said, thoughtfully. "It was really fun to play on the team, and you're much better than any of us."

Harry sighed. "He won't. Even if the first-year rule doesn't apply anymore, he'll come up with a different excuse. I'm absolutely sure. I wished I could be re-sorted, but since Dumbledore said that it's not possible, there's nothing that we can do about it. I really don't like Dumbledore much either. He does nothing, no matter how Snape behaves towards me."

"Are you going to be exempt from Potions classes then?" Hermione queried, while they observed Barkymort play ball with the Giant Squid.

"I don't think so," Harry said, pensively. "I don't want anyone to know that I've taken the OWL and NEWT."

However, Professor Dumbledore had other ideas.

_tbc ?_

_Thanks to the few kind reviewers for their feedback. _


	7. Chapter 7

**Pure Chance**  
><strong>by Healer Pomfrey<strong>

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.  
>I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.<em>

* * *

><p>When Professor Dumbledore greeted the students after the Sorting, he added, "I also wish to congratulate Harry Potter, who has as the youngest student of all times taken his Potions OWL and NEWT with the highest points that are achievable. Congratulations Mr. Potter."<p>

Harry inwardly groaned, feeling very much upset towards the headmaster. _'Maybe he should have asked me beforehand if I want everyone to know,'_ he thought, angrily. "What a meddling old coot," he whispered to Blaise.

While everyone enjoyed their dinner, Draco told the others, "My father bought brooms for the whole Quidditch team and arranged with Snape that I'm going to be the new Seeker. But I don't want to be the Seeker, Harry's much better than I. Could I perhaps become Chaser?"

"Of course," Marcus replied, eagerly. "We need a new Chaser anyway, and Harry's the best Seeker we could get. I just hope that Snape'll agree, considering the grudges that he's holding towards Harry."

"He surely won't," Harry threw in, knowing that the Potions Master had to be especially annoyed now after hearing about his OWL and NEWT.

HP

The Slytherins should soon realise how right Harry had been. When Snape informed the house during the house meeting after the welcoming feast that the Quidditch team had received new brooms from Mr. Malfoy and that Draco was the new Seeker, Draco immediately contradicted.

"Professor, the team and I have decided that I'm going to play Chaser, while Harry will be the new Seeker," he spoke up in a firm voice, causing the Slytherin head to see red.

"No Mr. Malfoy," he replied, icily. "You will abide by my rules. Just because all the Potters believe that they're better than everyone else, it doesn't mean that we all have to play along. You're going to play Seeker. If the team needs a Chaser as well, Marcus is going to have tryouts as soon as possible."

"That was clear," Harry whispered to Blaise, unaware that the Potions Master's hearing was extremely good.

"Five toads for your insolence, Mr. Potter," Snape hissed, causing Harry to let out a deep sigh.

'Don't say anything else now' Barkymort advised him, looking up at him from dark brown eyes.

'I know,' Harry replied, feeling very sad at his head of house's behaviour.

HP

However, it became even worse in the morning. The Slytherins' second morning class was Potions, and after breakfast, Harry trailed down to the dungeons together with Hermione, Blaise and Draco with apprehension.

A moment after Hermione, Harry and Blaise had slipped into the first row as usual, the classroom door was shut with a loud bang, and the professor strode towards the front of the room with his robes billowing behind him.

The professor quietly let his eyes wander over the room, before he hissed, "Potter! Out!"

"Sorry?" Harry asked, torn between surprise and shock.

"Since you've already taken your OWLs, there's no reason for you to be in this class," Snape replied, icily. "Out now."

Like in a trance, Harry left the Potions classroom, wondering what he should do now. _'I want to speak with Mum and Dad, but they're in class now,'_ he thought, trying to suppress the tears that welled up in his eyes. Finally, he decided to pay the headmaster a visit. However, after twenty minutes of inefficiently guessing the password for the gargoyle in front of Dumbledore's office, Harry was so fed up that he returned home, grabbed Barkymort into his arms and stepped into the fireplace, shouting, "The Potter house."

Without thinking about what he was doing, Harry made his way into the potions lab and began to brew the first potion from a prank potions book, which he had received from his godfather for his birthday. In order to not become tempted to prank a specific teacher, he had left it at home. However, now it did not matter anymore anyway. He flawlessly brewed the potion and pocketed the phial with the lime green liquid, before he cleaned the lab with a flick of his wand. Returning to his own room, he threw himself onto his bed and allowed his tears of anger and disappointment to run freely, slowly crying himself to sleep.

HP

At Hogwarts, Hermione, Blaise and Draco became worried when Harry did not only miss his second morning class, which was History of Magic, but did not appear for lunch either.

Hermione swiftly walked up to the head table and informed Lily and Professor McGonagall what had happened in their Potions class and that she had not seen Harry since then.

"Thank you for telling me," Lily said in a soft voice and awarded five points to Gryffindor, before she excused herself, hearing how Minerva verbally attacked the Potions Master, while she crossed the Great Hall.

Unfortunately, Lily could not find Harry, and by the time Hermione, Carol and Neville returned to the Potter quarters after the last afternoon class, Harry had yet to show up.

"Maybe he returned home," Carol suggested, causing Lily to give her daughter a thoughtful look.

Lily hurriedly stepped into the fireplace, barely registering that all three children followed her. They let out a collective sigh of relief, when Barkymort happily greeted them in front of the fireplace.

"If Barkymort's here, Harry must be here too," Carol spoke up and hurried into her brother's room.

HP

Harry woke up, when his sister shouted, "Harry's here."

He lazily opened his eyes that were still red from crying, seeing his mother, Hermione and Neville storm into the room.

"Thank Merlin," Hermione blurted out. "We were so worried."

"I'm sorry," Harry mumbled, feeling very much reassured by the presence of his mother, sister and friends.

They talked about what had happened for a while, before Lily decided, "Very well, Harry, I suggest that you begin studying for the Potions Mastery right away. During your free periods, when your classmates have Potions, you can study the theoretical part, and during the weekends, I'm going to teach you. How's that?"

"Thank you, Mum. That's brilliant," Harry replied, very much consoled.

"Very well then," Lily said, smiling, before she announced, "I need to go back to Hogwarts and attend dinner. I'll excuse you from dinner, but please make sure that you're back at Hogwarts before curfew, all of you," she added, giving Harry a stern look. "I'll deal with Professor Snape."

"Oh, I wouldn't want to be in Professor Snape's skin," Hermione spoke up after Lily had stepped into the fireplace. "When she's angry, she gets really scary."

"And she's brilliant at Charms," Carol added. "I can't wait to see how she's going to deal with Snape."

HP

Harry did not see the Potions Master anymore on that day. When he returned to Hogwarts, he retired to his bedroom and went straight to bed, where he busied himself reading a Potions book that his mother had instructed him to study in order to prepare himself for the mastery.

However, when Professor Snape entered the common room before breakfast on the following morning, the teacher seemed like a different person.

"I've booked the Quidditch pitch for us for tonight," he informed the students, "so that you can try out your new brooms."

Draco raised his hand. "Sir, is it all right if I play Chaser then and Harry Seeker?" he queried, causing Harry to cast his friend a horrified look.

_'Don't even mention me in front of Snape,'_ he thought in annoyance, mentally preparing himself for the outburst that was sure to come.

However, the Potions Master merely nodded. "If that's what the team wants," he replied, positively, causing the students to exchange surprised looks. "Don't be late for breakfast," the professor instructed them and left the common room, his robes billowing behind him as usual.

"Someone has played a prank on Snape," one of the seventh years spoke up what they all thought.

_'Probably Mum,'_ Harry realised, inwardly grinning. _'I just hope it won't wear off too soon.'_

HP

To the whole school's surprise, during Harry's second year, Professor Snape turned out to be one of the friendliest professors at Hogwarts. He never said anything negative about anyone else, did not overly take house points from the students and even began to occasionally wear blue and green robes.

Throughout the school year, Harry played Seeker on his house team, and the Slytherin Quidditch team won all matches as well as the Quidditch cup at the end of the school year.

Since Harry did not attend the Potions classes and only returned to the Slytherin common room on time for curfew, he did not come in direct contact with the professor overly often, however, even if he met the Potions Master, Snape behaved civically.

On the one hand, Harry was extremely relieved to not get into fights with his head of house every now and then and delighted to be able to play on the Quidditch team, however, on the other hand, he always worried when the charm that his mother had obviously cast at the Potions Master was going to wear off.

"Don't worry, Harry. When it wears off, I'm just going to cast it again," Lily promised, smiling, reassuringly.

However, to Lily's own surprise, the charm lasted more than two years, and when Lily realised that it seemed to be slowly wearing off, she immediately re-cast the charm, putting as much magic into the spell as she could.

HP

It was at about the same time, at the beginning of Harry's fourth Hogwarts year, that he and Neville suddenly experienced different problems. They were pulled into visions. It was always almost the same vision - about a small creature that was being fed by two wizards. Harry and Neville both put their visions into a Pensieve and showed them to James and Frank, who immediately proceeded to contact the Department of Magical Mysteries that had already helped getting rid of the Horcruxes two years ago.

A few days later, James returned from the Ministry and informed his family that people from the Department of Magical Mysteries had transfigured the small creature into dragon dung and then banished the dung completely. "Whatever it was, it's dead now," he added, contentedly, before he let out a huge gasp. "Harry and Neville, your scars are gone," he blurted out. "That should mean that Voldemort is really gone for good."

"Thank Merlin," Lily replied, sighing in relief. "Please tell your colleagues from the Department of Magical Mysteries just how grateful we are that they helped us and got rid of him." Turning to Alice, she added, "So much about prophecies."

"I think no one but Voldemort and Dumbledore believed in that prophecy anyway," James replied, grinning.

HP

Harry was outright happy that the visions finally stopped, as it had been very annoying to not be able to get undisturbed sleep, which he needed in order to be able to study for his Potions Mastery that he was supposed to take during the summer after his fourth Hogwarts year.

To his relief, Professor Snape was still under the influence of Lily's charm, and Harry could not only peacefully finish his Potions Mastery as well as a year later the OWLs in all the other subjects but also thoroughly enjoy himself.

When Marcus left Hogwarts after his NEWTs, Professor Snape made Draco the Quidditch captain, and as the house team's Seeker, Harry was able to reassure the Quidditch cup for Slytherin five times in a row.

Only during the summer after Harry's sixth Hogwarts year did the charm that Lily had placed on Professor Snape wear off again. Unfortunately, this time, Snape was alert enough to immediately complain to the headmaster, who from his side vehemently forbade his colleagues to cast any kind of charm or spell on another colleague.

_tbc..._

_Thank you so much for the kind reviews!_


	8. Chapter 8

**Pure Chance**  
><strong>by Healer Pomfrey<strong>

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.  
>I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.<em>

* * *

><p>By the time Harry and his family returned to Hogwarts shortly before the beginning of Harry's seventh year, the Potions Master was back to his usual menacing self, who hated all Potters with a passion.<p>

In a huge fight between Professor Snape and Draco, during which Draco retired from the post as Quidditch captain and Chaser, Snape gave the Seeker position to a second year student, after all possible older candidates refused to take over the position from Harry.

"He's totally nuts," Draco complained to Blaise and Harry later on. "With you as the Seeker, we won every single match, but his personal grudges are more important than his duties towards his own house."

"Yes, it's absolutely ridiculous," Blaise agreed, immediately.

To Harry's surprise, his two friends along with a group of other housemates even went to see the headmaster about the matter, however, Dumbledore informed them that he was not going to interfere in what was a house internal problem.

_'Typically Dumbledore,'_ Harry thought in annoyance. _'Snape is allow to behave like he wants, and Dumbledore never does anything against it. One is worse than the other.'_

HP

Harry knew better than to care about the professor's moods. He only attended the Quidditch matches in order to openly cheer for his sister and his best friends but could not care less that Slytherin lost all Quidditch matches of the year.

Even during the house meetings, he did not bother to listen to his head of house anymore but busied himself with his own thoughts, which mostly revolved around two topics - how and when he should ask Hermione to become his wife and whom exactly they should invite to participate in the project that he was planning together with his family.

HP

For the first matter, he chose Christmas day. At the same time as Neville proposed to Carol, Harry asked Hermione to marry him after their NEWTs, and as expected, both girls agreed immediately.

HP

On the day after their last NEWT exam, the four friends for once spent an evening in their respective common rooms. They had prepared parchments, magically copied them and equipped the copies with charms that would see to it that those in the hands of students who were not interested would vanish into thin air after being read and that those students would not be able to do as much as speak about the topic.

_Beginning of letter_

**_Invitation to the new School of Magic_**

_Dear students, due to several reasons, we have decided to found a new School of Magic, to which we wish to invite you._

_The School of Magic will be a boarding school, open to all students from the age of eleven onwards. It is situated at Potter Manor, and the method to travel to and from the school will be Portkeys. The following professors are going to teach these subjects:_

_Carol Potter - Charms  
><em>_Neville Longbottom - Herbology  
><em>_Remus Lupin - Defence Against the Dark Arts  
><em>_Draco Malfoy - Dark Arts  
><em>_Harry Potter - Potions  
><em>_Hermione Granger - Transfiguration  
><em>_Rolanda Hooch - Flying  
><em>_Lily Evans-Potter - Healing (elective)  
><em>_James Potter - Ancient Runes (elective)  
><em>_Frank Longbottom - Arithmancy (elective)  
><em>_Blaise Zabini - Latin (elective)  
><em>_Sirius Black - Care of Magical Creatures (elective)  
><em>_Alice Longbottom - History of Magic (elective)  
><em>_Fred and George Weasley - Magic for Fun (elective)  
><em>_Lily Evans-Potter will be the healer  
><em>_Minerva McGonagall will be the headmistress_

_There will be no houses at the School of Magic, so that you will be able to freely choose your friends._

_We are looking forward to having you at our new school. Please send your application to Professor McGonagall by owl before the 31st of July._

_End of letter_

After answering many questions about the new school, Harry noticed, contentedly, that about eighty percent of the students were still having their parchments in their hands, when he decided to return to his bedroom shortly before curfew.

HP

If Harry and his huge family had expected to have a quiet first school year at their new school, they noticed soon that they were completely mistaken. By the end of their last school year at Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall had already received applications from seventy percent of the current Hogwarts students.

"And I haven't even written to the new first-years," she informed the others, when they met thirty minutes before the leaving feast in order to go to Dumbledore's office and present him with their collective resignations.

**The End**

A huge thanks to the kind readers who fed my muse!


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